Circular spoilers for Mother 3, Homestuck, and Undertale: ( Read more... )

This is a game that is trying really hard to hurt you, and does it in a lot of big dramatic ways: all the child and animal abuse and abandonment, dead Mom flashbacks constantly, the object of the main quest is to personally kill your most trustworthy allies before the other guy inevitably gets to them, etc etc.

But the part that always ends up hitting me hardest is how bad you feel for the Pigmasks. It's a little thing, but it's there all the time. They're that group of fanatical followers of evil you see in a lot of games that you're not normally supposed to care about hurting - you almost never see their faces, they don't have names, they spawn the same way monsters do.

But they're scared and confused from the very first encounter, and they're childishly thrilled to get to wear these goofy outfits, and they love kids. Lucas keeps infiltrating them with the aim of destroying their organization, and they're so trusting and enthusiastic that it works immediately even when they don't mistake him for the Masked Man - they think every little boy wants to be a Pigmask when he grows up! They're so cool and they have so much fun! The worst part is how protective they are of him during the chimera segment, while that creepy music with the terrified oinks is playing.

I avoid fighting them whenever possible, basically. Follow your dreams, pig-furry cultists.